David Barton’s latest crazy pronouncement is that God himself is going to come right down from heaven to demand an explanation for economic policies that Barton doesn’t like (but which he’s mostly imagined, of course). Great. As soon as he comes down here, I’ll take Barton seriously. Until then, he’s still a buffoon. Wake me when God gets here.
Just how far to the right is this year’s Republican platform? So far that David Barton is calling it the “most conservative in my lifetime” and bragging that all but one of the more than 70 motions he made were passed by the platform committee and made it in.
While David Barton and his defenders continue to claim that he’s the victim of a vast left-wing conspiracy, more and more conservative Christians are finally backing away from him. The latest is Breakpoint Ministries, founded by Charles Colson. And they’re even admitting why they fell for it in the first place:
Marvin Olasky, editor of the Christian publication WORLD magazine, has written a column to defend that magazine’s handling of David Barton over the years. And he basically says that he paid no attention to previous criticism of Barton’s work because it came from “left-wing historians.”
In what may be the least surprising news since Ted Haggard was caught snorting meth off a male hooker’s glutes, it looks like David Barton’s book The Jefferson Lies will be reissued by Glenn Beck’s publishing company after being dropped by Thomas Nelson.
I have long used the phrase argumentum ad labelum to describe a particular type of logical fallacy that is almost ubiquitous in political discussions. This type of argument is used to dismiss someone’s arguments rather than answer them. It’s pretty much the only form of argument David Barton ever uses, and more so now than ever as he attacks his critics as liberals, atheists and “academic elitists.” Evangelical historian John Fea blasts him for it:
As Right Wing Watch points out, the casual lies of David Barton are often magnified by others, who take some smaller falsehood told by him and turn it into an even bigger falsehood. The deranged Jerry Boykin does exactly that in this video, claiming that “the Bible is referenced four times more than any other document in our Constitution.”
After his book about Thomas Jefferson was pulled by Thomas Nelson, one of the most prominent Christian publishing companies in the world, David Barton offered a very predictable response. He says he’s got lots of smart people who think he’s right, so all the people who have pointed out his lies don’t matter.
On Saturday, Rick Green, co-host of David Barton’s radio show, posted a challenge on his website. He said, “If you can show me specifics that back up the image created by the critics innuendo, I’ll post it right here for the world to see.” Our own Chris Rodda took him up on that challenge and sent him a link to her first book, which is full of specific instances of Barton distorting the truth. And here is the entirely predictable response:
Dispatches From the Culture Wars
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